As he was putting one of the bags back into place, he knocked down a gun that had been standing in the corner and that now fell at his feet with a loud clatter. He picked it up and recognized with delight that it was Oscar’s rifle, the same one that he himself had dropped in the woods the day that he was lost. This would be a prize indeed to take back with him when the time should come to go. But how had the pirates come by it? Had somebody been following that day in the forest, was the same somebody even now following Oscar wherever he had gone?
He made his breakfast and fed Nicholas from his own supplies. Fortunately he knew enough not to try to give food to John Edmonds, who was sleeping uneasily again, as though the fever was once more beginning to rise. Hugh, sitting beside him, began to do some very intense calculating as to who would be the most likely to come back first, Dick Edmonds or Half-Breed Jake. It was impossible to tell, he could only wait. He sat, staring down at his patient for a long time. The only proper thing to do was to try to get him across the ravine to Oscar’s cottage, but could a boy of sixteen possibly hope to convey a heavy, helpless man that far? To all of his questionings this was the only one to which there was a definite answer. And the answer was no.
The morning passed, one slow hour after another. It was still raining heavily, with water pouring from the edge of the cabin roof and streaming down the windows, and with the flooded creek still thundering in the ravine below. Every minute that passed brought nearer the possible return of Half-Breed Jake, since, so Hugh began to think, he must certainly be the one to come first. More than once he thought he heard steps outside and felt of his revolver to be ready for whatever might come, but each time it proved to be a false alarm. Finally he sat down at the table, facing the door, and laid his revolver before him, to wait as best he could. He had risen very early the morning that Oscar had gone away alone—was it a day or a week ago? At least he knew that he had slept very little since and that he must, at all costs, keep awake now. Yet slowly his head began to nod, to droop further toward the table; finally it rested on his arms and he was asleep.